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Personally, as a sometime developer I have been helped immensely by the GPL - because it made further developments possible. We're discussing this on a board that is a Linux server running Apache, PHP and presumably MySQL.

This is not because they are free as in beer, which, for instance, vBulletin is not. This is because over the past 15 some-odd years developers have contributed massive amounts of time refining these things because they knew that others would not be exclusively profiting off of their efforts, but rather they would be providing a service that they themselves have benefited from in the past. Paying it forward, of sorts.

And I understand this perspective as well, but still fail to see how or why people would rail about it with such fervor ... that's just me I guess.

And I understand this perspective as well, but still fail to see how or why people would rail about it with such fervor ... that's just me I guess.

I find it irritating that D* provides only a casual and oblique reference to the work of so many expert programmers who contributed their efforts to the public good, while D* is just in it for the money. The least they could do is provide a courteous acknowledgment of the great debt they owe. I'm sure that D*'s army of lawyers has made sure they can get away with saying no more than they do. Is that all that counts with you?

DirecTV would only be in violation of the GPL if they were actually modifying the kernel code and then they would only be liable to disclose their changes to the kernel. Any additional software that they write that runs under the Linux kernel they have no legal obligation to disclose.

Do you have any proof that they have made any kernel changes? Or are they simply using the Linux kernel to run their software on?

It was posted at other sites:from system log of HR20-600, check who modified the kernel (bold)

I find it irritating that D* provides only a casual and oblique reference to the work of so many expert programmers who contributed their efforts to the public good, while D* is just in it for the money. The least they could do is provide a courteous acknowledgment of the great debt they owe. I'm sure that D*'s army of lawyers has made sure they can get away with saying no more than they do. Is that all that counts with you?

And I understand this perspective as well, but still fail to see how or why people would rail about it with such fervor ... that's just me I guess.

Drew,

Certainly the passion is nothing like that for HD channel launches .

Seriously, the Open Source movement encompasses people that have dedicated great portions of their working lives to the products and the whole idea of Open Source software. They are truly "invested" in that movement and are going to be very apt to fight for strict adherence to the license.

On the other hand, if the group with legal standing is unwilling to take any action (legal or even PR related) on this issue (have they been asked?) then that should stand as either their agreement that DirecTV has done enough or they're not all that interested in protecting their rights under the license.

...On the other hand, if the group with legal standing is unwilling to take any action (legal or even PR related) on this issue (have they been asked?) then that should stand as either their agreement that DirecTV has done enough or they're not all that interested in protecting their rights under the license.

Tom, if you want go into details, you could use your own DVR , but there are strong indications of _customized_ kernel. Please participate, don't hesitate to look inside your DVR's disk.

There are several ways to customize a Linux kernel that are perfectly normal for a user -- I've done it a number of times. You choose the drivers you want to compile, whether you want them to be modules, you may include proprietary closed source drivers, you choose which filesystems to use, what scheduling algorithm, what compiler and assembler. I don't think D* would have any reason to go beyond this ordinary sort of customization.

Must it? If you say so. I don't know much about this licensing stuff. I have some vague recollection that "disclosing" the source might mean no more than supplying a reference to where it may be obtained for the cost of distribution.